| July 27, 2008 | - During a children's production of “Annie, Jr.” at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, 58-year-old unemployed truck driver Jim J. Adkisson opened fire on a packed sanctuary with a twelve-gauge shotgun. “We were just, 'Oh, my God, that's not part of the play,'” said Amira Parkey, 16, who was playing Miss Hannigan. After killing one man and wounding seven others (one of whom later died from her wounds), Adkisson was tackled by John Bohstedt, who was playing Daddy Warbucks.
| Source:
AP
|
| May 29, 2008 | - Dianne Odell, a polio victim in Tennessee, died at the age of 61, after 58 years in an iron lung.
| Source:
AP
|
| November 2, 2007 | - The town of Orme, Tennessee, which has suffered from a prolonged drought, announced that it had run out of water.
| Source:
AP
|
| October 5, 2007 | - Bo Ward, the proprietor of a barbershop near the Army’s Fort Campbell, committed suicide at a town meeting in Clarksville, Tennessee. Ward had requested that his home be rezoned as a commercial property to increase its value and to offset the losses he suffered when most of his regular patrons, among them General David Petraeus, were deployed to Iraq; the City Council refused. “Y’all have put me under,” said the barber before inserting a pistol into his mouth. “I’m out of here.”
| Source:
San Jose Mercury News
|
| September 25, 2007 | - The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled women must return engagement rings should their wedding be canceled, even if the ring was received on Christmas Day.
| Source:
Tennessean
|
| January 25, 2007 | - Six teenage girls were arrested on conspiracy charges after a list of 300 assassination targets, including Tom Cruise and the Energizer Bunny, was discovered in a trash can in a rural Tennessee high school. “I was very scared, my friends were scared,” said sophomore Lakyn Ledford, who stayed home after learning that student-athletes were also on the list.
| Source:
AP via SFGate.com
|
| November 17, 2006 | -
Deep-fried American flags were removed from an art exhibit in Tennessee.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| November 3, 2006 | -
Tennessee G.O.P. officals claimed smart cards were missing from a Memphis polling place.
| Source:
WMCTV
|
| July 24, 2006 | - A Tennessee
elephant named Winkie was found not to have killed her handler on purpose.
| Source:
AP via Forbes
|
| July 5, 2006 | - A megachurch called the World Overcomers congregation in Memphis, Tennessee, unveiled a 72-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty (with the Ten Commandments under one arm, a tear on her cheek, and “Jehovah” inscribed on her crown) holding a cross of gold.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 3, 2006 | - Thunderstorms--along with at least 63 tornadoes--killed 27 people in Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| March 17, 2006 | - A federal appeals court ruled that Tennessee may issue "Choose Life" license plates.
| Source:
AP via First Amendment Center
|
| December 6, 2005 | - A Memphis, Tennessee, woman was arrested after she hired a hit man to kill four other men and take their cocaine; the hit man turned out to be an undercover police officer, and the cocaine turned out to be queso fresco cheese.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| December 1, 2005 | - In Tennessee a man was arrested for firing a gun at traffic while wearing only a pair of socks.
| Source:
AP
|
| November 19, 2005 | - Representative John Murtha (D., Pa.), called for the halt of U.S. troop deployments to Iraq. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), seeking to cut off debate over Murtha's statements, countered by proposing a measure that required that U.S. troops be brought home immediately. Jean Schmidt (R., Ohio) addressed Murtha, a decorated veteran and former Marine colonel who previously supported the invasion of Iraq, by quoting a Marine Corps reserve officer who told her that “cowards cut and run.” She was booed by Democrats. “You guys,” yelled Marty Meehan (D., Mass.), “are pathetic!” Harold Ford (D., Tenn.) ran across the House chamber's center aisle to the Republican side. “Say Murtha's name!” he shouted. Schmidt asked that her comments be struck from the record, and Hunter's resolution was rejected 403 to 3, with Murtha among those voting against it.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| September 14, 2005 | - A broken light bulb at a school gym in Tennessee caused severe sunburns and swollen eyes in 18 people.
| Source:
SunHerald.com
|
| September 5, 2005 | - In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the United States declared disasters in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Taken together, the 90,000-square-mile disaster area would be the twelfth largest state. Emergencies were declared in Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
| Source:
U.S. Department of Defense
|
| July 26, 2005 | - A homeless man in Nashville, Tennessee, confessed to strangling two other homeless men. “I got addicted,” he explained, “to sucking the souls out of people.”
| Source:
Local6.com
|
| July 15, 2005 | - A Tennessee man was charged with desecrating a venerated object and sent to jail after he burned an American flag.
| Source:
AP
|
| June 13, 2005 | - Police in Tennessee arrested 144 people at a cockfight.
| Source:
Wired News
|
| April 25, 2005 | -
Senator
Bill Frist of Tennessee asked Christian conservatives to help him end filibusters.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 6, 2005 | -
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, addressing a Tennessee celebration honoring Abraham Lincoln, said that South Carolina did not “do Lincoln Day Dinners” because “it takes awhile to get over things.”
| Source:
KnoxNews.com
|
| February 3, 2005 | - The Nashville police paid informants $120,000 to have sexual encounters with prostitutes.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 10, 2004 | -
Tennessee took steps to eliminate its public health programs.
| Source:
State of Tennessee
|
| March 19, 2004 | - A county in Tennessee was trying to rid itself of homosexuals.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| December 30, 2003 | - In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a man was in trouble for keeping 114 dead cats in his freezer.
| Source:
The Tennessean
|
| November 25, 2003 | - A Ku Klux Klan member was accidentally shot in the head during an initiation ceremony in Tennessee, though the initiate, who was tied to a tree with a noose and shot with paint pellets, was unharmed.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| September 24, 2002 | -
Christians at New Life Ministries in Loudon, Tennessee, tried to resurrect a 15-year-old girl who died of untreated bone cancer.
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